The May Day Murders (12 page)

Ann said, “I hope I’m not being nosy,
but how long have you lived in Columbus?”

Jerry chuckled. “You’re not being nosy
in the least, Ann. I’ve been here just a little more than a year. I
moved here from Cleveland shortly after my wife passed away. I had
to get away from there—too many memories and all that. The real
estate market is better in this area anyway. Columbus is quite a
boom town now and I’m afraid to say that Cleveland is swiftly
heading for the skids.”

Ann sympathized with his wanting to get
away from memories–she had done the very same thing herself. “Has
it been a hard adjustment for you to make—living here as opposed to
Cleveland?” she asked curiously.

“
It was a little tough at
first, I must admit. Fortunately, though, business has been so good
that I haven’t had a great deal of time to dwell on it. Have you
lived in Columbus all your life?”

“
Not hardly,” Ann laughed.
“I just moved here a few months ago, as a matter of
fact.”

“
From where, may I
ask?”

“
Smithtown. It’s a little
town in the southern part of the state.”

“
I’ve heard of it. Isn’t it
directly across the Ohio River from Kentucky?”

“
Yes.”

“
I guess it’s time for me to
ask the same question: Have you had any trouble adjusting to
Columbus?”

Ann balked a moment then replied,
“Frankly, it hasn’t been easy. I have a fourteen-year-old who’s
giving me fits right now; but it’s understandable in a way. After
all, she’s been forced to start high school in a new town and is at
that awkward age, anyway. My recent divorce no doubt has a lot to
do with it, too. And on top of everything else, my best friend
recently passed away. I’ve had a very difficult time dealing with
that.”

“
My God, Ann. I didn’t
realize … It sounds as though you’re going through some pretty
tough times right now. Do you attend church?”

The question caught her off totally off
guard, and for a moment she was unable to speak. “No, not lately,
anyway,” she finally replied.

“
I see. I was just curious,
and hope I haven’t somehow offended you by asking. It’s just that
the church has helped me get through some hard times in the past,
and I was simply wondering if you’d found the same thing to be
true. At any rate, we’ll drop the subject right now before you
start thinking I’m some kind of religious fanatic or something!” he
chuckled.

Ann had to admit she was relieved. “No
offense taken, Jerry. We used to go to church regularly when Amy
was younger but we sort of got out of the habit over the years. Now
that I think about it, it probably wouldn’t hurt either of us to
start going again,” she added thoughtfully.

“
Your daughter would
probably resent it, if it was your idea. Kids her age tend to
resent any kind of adult intervention in their lives.”

Ann laughed. “You’ve sure got that
right. It sounds like you’ve had some experience with
kids.”

“
I don’t have any of my own
unfortunately, but I’ve done some volunteer work for the church in
the youth fellowship program. These kids nowadays have a lot more
challenges to face than when I was a kid, it seems. These are tough
times to be a kid, in my opinion. What with drugs, AIDS, crime and
so on.”

“
I agree. Our idea of a good
time when I was a teenager was hanging out at the malt shop and
going to teen dances. These kids today seem absolutely bored with
everything—they sit in front of the television most of the time and
spend the rest of their time trying to see what kind of trouble
they can get themselves into.”

Jerry gasped. “I would never have
guessed you’ve been around so long, Ann! You certainly don’t look
as old as you’re implying you are.”

Ann melted from his flattery. “Thanks,
Jerry. That was very kind of you. But believe me, I’ve been around
awhile.”

“
Well, it doesn’t show.” he
declared. “What kind of work do you do, by the way?”

“
I’m working at a travel
agency right now, but I’m hoping to go back to college sometime in
the near future and get my law degree.”

“
I think that’s wonderful,
Ann! I admire your ambition.”

“
Well, you can tell me that
if and when I actually follow through with it. I’m not sure it will
pan out, but I’d like to think it will someday.”

“
You’ll succeed, Ann. You
remind me of the type who has set goals for herself and will stop
at nothing to achieve those goals no matter what. Correct me if I’m
wrong.” he challenged.

“
Well, I guess you’re
right—in a way. I appreciate your vote of confidence, at any
rate.”

“
My pleasure.”

There was an awkward pause in the
conversation and Ann sensed that Jerry Rankin was rapidly running
out of small talk. She felt comfortable talking to him and was in
fact enjoying it, but she didn’t want him to feel obligated to
continue.

“
Well, I guess I’d better
let you go. It’s been really nice talking to you, Jerry,” she
suddenly said. “Maybe we can do it again sometime.”

“
I’ve enjoyed it too, Ann.”
he said, his disappointment more than evident. “If by chance you’d
like to chat again, you can usually reach me any weekday around
this time. And just for the record, that dinner invitation is still
open,” he added.

Ann decided there was no longer any
reason to continue playing the coy divorcée. She liked what she’d
seen and heard so far, and had no doubts that Jerry Rankin was a
good, decent guy. She replied, “In that case, I wouldn’t be opposed
to chatting again over dinner sometime.”

There, she’d done it.

“
Wonderful!” he exclaimed.
“I’ll be honest, Ann. I’m really glad you said that because I’m not
really very keen on telephones—they seem so impersonal and all—and
I’ve found that I can relate much better when I can see who I’m
talking to, as opposed to staring at the walls. Anyway, just tell
me when would be convenient for you. My time is always
flexible.”

“
I’m free on the weekends… any weekend,” she added, perhaps a little too
quickly.

“
Would tomorrow be too
soon?” he asked.

Ann hadn’t expected such short notice.
She thought for a moment and decided that Friday would be just as
good as any other time. “No, tomorrow would be fine,” she
said.

“
When shall I pick you
up?”

Amy was going to the football game
tomorrow, she recalled. She could fix her an early dinner and still
have time to get ready by eight. “How about eight
o’clock?”

“
Terrific! I’ll swing by at
eight then,” he said. “What’s your address?”

“
It’s 724 Meadow Lane—in
Century Hills, Woodcrest.”

“
I know the neighborhood
well—it’s one of the few left in Franklin County that still has any
character, in my opinion,” he said. “Oh, and I’d better get your
phone number as well.”

Ann recited her number, and then Jerry
said, “Wonderful. I’ll see you tomorrow evening at eight
o’clock.”

“
I’m looking forward to it,
Jerry. See you then. ‘Bye.”

“
Goodbye, Ann.”

Her head was spinning when she hung up
the phone. Then it suddenly hit her.

Amy! How was she going to react to all
of this? she thought in a sudden fit of panic.

Ann’s first impulse was to call Jerry
Rankin back and immediately break the date with him. She picked up
the phone and started to dial his number, wondering how she could
be so selfish to make a date with someone without first discussing
it with her daughter. Then she suddenly stopped herself, hung up,
and dialed Karen’s number instead.

“
Karen, it’s me. I’ve just
done something really awful!”

“
Good Lord, Ann, what’s
happened?” her friend asked.

“
I just made a dinner date
with Jerry Rankin for tomorrow night and I didn’t even talk to Amy
about it first!”

“
You what? You’ve made a
date with him already?” Karen asked incredulously. “Ann, that’s
wonderful! I’m so proud of you!”

“
Well, I’m not proud of me.
It all happened so fast, Karen! I talked to him for a few minutes,
got to know him a little better, and before I knew it I was
accepting his invitation for dinner without even giving a thought
to Amy. I’m so ashamed …”

“
Settle down now, dear.”
Karen consoled. “It’s not the end of the world. The important thing
is that you actually followed through with this thing and now
you’re actually going out on a date. That’s good, honey—not bad.
Now tell me exactly what happened.”

Ann managed to get a grip on herself
and proceeded to tell Karen about her phone conversation with Jerry
Rankin. When she was finished she said, “I’m going to call him back
right now and break off the date.”

“
Don’t do it, Ann,” Karen
advised. “Listen, if you call him back and cancel out now, you may
never get this opportunity again. Not only would it be rude, but
you’d probably scare him off in the process. I truly think you’re
over-reacting to this as far as Amy is concerned. After all, you’re
just going out to dinner with this guy, right? It’s not like you’re
jumping right into a relationship or anything. He could just as
well be one of our clients at the travel agency, for all intents
and purposes. The point I’m making is, wait and see if something
develops with this Jerry fellow before confronting Amy with it. For
now, just tell her you’re going out to dinner with one of our
clients and leave it at that. You’ll save both Amy and yourself a
lot of unnecessary tension that way, Ann—believe me. I’ve gone
through the very same thing you’re going through now and one thing
I learned is this: don’t dare tell the kids about a relationship
until you’re absolutely sure that you have a relationship in the
first place.”

Ann thought it over a moment. Then she
said, “Maybe you’re right. It’s just that I don’t like sneaking
around—I want to be honest with Amy.”

“
And I agree—you should be
honest with her. But give yourself a little slack, dear! You’re
entitled to a little privacy in your life; Amy doesn’t have to know
your every move. If something develops with this guy, by all means
tell Amy about him and go from there. But until then, let it be a
non-issue.”

Even though Karen’s sober advice made
her feel a little better, Ann was still unsure of
herself.

“
I guess I could just tell
Amy that I’m going out for dinner tomorrow night and leave it at
that. She’s going to the school football game so I’ll probably make
it back home before she does. She’ll never know the
difference.”

“
There you go! It’s no big
deal when you think about it. I have to admit I’m excited for you,
though. Where are you two going?” Karen inquired
enthusiastically.

“
I have no idea—he never
brought it up.”

“
Aren’t you
excited?”

Ann sighed. “I was until I thought
about Amy. Now I’m not so sure.”

“
C’mon, get excited! Amy
will be fine. You’re going to have a great time, dear. I just know
it!”

“
I’ll probably feel better
once he comes by to get me. Until then I’m going to be a nervous
wreck,” Ann declared.

“
You’ll be fine. Remember,
it’s just a dinner date with a nice guy. That’s it—no big deal.
Right?” Karen coaxed.

“
I guess so … I think I
just heard Amy out front so I’d better go.”

“
Okay. We’ll talk more about
this at the office tomorrow. I’ll see you then.”

“
All right, Karen. And
thanks. See you tomorrow.”

Amy was coming in the front door as Ann
hung up the phone. She snatched up Jerry Rankin’s business card
from the kitchen table and slid it into her purse just as Amy
entered the room.

“
Hi sweetie! Did you get all
your homework done?”

Amy threw her books down on the table
with a scowl then walked over to the refrigerator and opened the
door. “I hate algebra! This dick we have for a teacher assigned us
two whole pages of problems for tomorrow!” Amy whined.

“
Were you able to do them
all?” Ann asked, watching her as she took out a can of Pepsi and
popped the tab.

“
Most of them. I’ll do the
rest in study hall,” Amy replied, taking a slug. “We have anything
to eat?”

“
There’s some fried chicken
in the fridge. Didn’t you eat over at Amanda’s?”

“
I had some ice
cream.”

Ann looked at her reproachfully. “You
told me you were going to eat supper at Amanda’s—ice cream sure
doesn’t sound like supper to me.”

Amy grimaced and said, “Her mother made
a casserole and I swear to God it looked just like dog barf, Mom! I
couldn’t have eaten it if someone paid me!”

“
Well, eat some chicken
then. There’s a tossed salad and some Jello in there
too.”

“
I’ll just have potato chips
instead. Where are they?”

Ann stood up and went over to Amy. “You
have got to start eating right, Amy! I’ll fix you a plate and
you’re going to eat it.”